Report from Malta, part 1

A delegation from Mtarfa municipality, situated in the middle of Malta Island, was in Arvidsjaur for a visit in February 2009. The reason was Kevin Borg from Mtarfa winning the Swedish Idol competition last year. In Arvidsjaur the visitors got an insight into how Swedish municipalities work, how the youth exchanges are organized and what different products the tourism industry has to offer.   

In the beginning of May it was time for representatives from Arvidsjaur to visit Malta. The Municipal council chairman Rune Granström, Municipal commissioner Jerry Johansson, Director of trade and industry Kenneth Eklund, Head of tourism Peter Manner and Michael Åhman, Ideum, boarded the plane with high expectations. SAS has direct flights from Stockholm to Malta, and Ryan Air has direct flights from Skavsta airport to Malta.

Mtarfa, situated in the centre of Malta 

Malta is an island in the middle of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily with Libyen as the closest neighbor to the south. Malta is much more densely populated than Sweden (1.298 inhabitatnts/km2) and has 410.000 inhabitants. The area of Malta is 316 km2. They have a very rich history and receive about 3 million tourists every year. Malta is a catholic country and a member of EU since 5 years. One year ago they changed their currency to Euro.

 
View from Mtarfa towards neighboring municipality Rabat with the city Mdina.

Our delegation was very well received at the municipal office of Mtarfa, the Swedish flag was hoisted together with Mtarfas. The municipality is very small (about 2000 inhabitants), fairly young (founded in the year 2000) with an enterprising attitude. Mtarfa was main base for the English forces on Malta before, with extensive building complexes of every kind, now transformed into schools, housing and other public institutions.

The mayor of Mtarfa: Anton Mifsud